$12K in tickets from Bluff City speed cameras might be refunded

About $12,000 worth of speed camera citations issued in late July may be refunded after a former police officer admitted to letting a reserve officer use his log-in information to review the tickets on the city’s computer system.

“This situation is being taken very seriously,” interim City Manager Judy Dulaney said after the incident came to light Tuesday during a public disciplinary hearing in which former Officer LeVell McClintock, who was fired in August over the incident, asked to be reinstated.

City employees who have been fired can request a hearing to review their termination in a public forum.

McClintock admitted during the hearing that he let Reserve Officer Anthony Housewright use his account to review some of the camera system’s citations on July 24 while he responded to a mobile home fire. McClintock said he asked Housewright, who previously watched other police officers review and sign off on camera tickets, to handle this duty because he was afraid the citations would be invalid if not reviewed during a certain amount of time.

But City Attorney Paul Frye said McClintock’s actions violated a new state law barring anyone but officers who have been certified by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission from reviewing camera citations and signing off on them. Housewright did not have this certification and was not supposed to review the tickets, he said.

Records from the hearing show the two men reviewed 243 citations issued to drivers caught speeding by the cameras on U.S. Highway 11E between July 17 and July 22. Each citation carried a $50 fine – bringing their total value to $12,150.

The city’s controversial speed camera program began in January 2010. Between then and May 2011, the cameras issued 39,923 citations to drivers caught speeding along a 45-mph-zone on the highway that runs through the Piney Flats community. The sheer number of tickets and the $1.6 million worth of revenue generated for the city has prompted an outrage that’s reverberated across the state.

This anger at red light camera systems used in other Tennessee localities led to the new speed camera law, which went into effect July 1 and among other things barred non-POST certified officers from reviewing camera citations.

“It is an injustice that people are taking their hard-earned money out of their pockets to pay these fines when the procedure was not properly followed,” interim Police Chief Greg Depew said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Depew said McClintock’s actions put the city at risk because an officer can be called to testify under oath that he or she personally reviewed a camera citation if the ticket is challenged in court. McClintock could not do this with the tickets he and Housewright reviewed July 24, the interim chief said, which means they could all be thrown out in court. 

Depew said this was why he determined that McClintock, who had been with the department since August 2009, should be fired, after discussing the matter with Dulaney on Aug. 18. He also planned to fire Housewright, but the reserve officer quit in protest of McClintock’s dismissal before this could happen.

McClintock said neither he nor Housewright knew reserve officers can’t review and sign off on the citations. McClintock said he made “a huge mistake” and offered to personally review the tickets a second time so he could testify to them in court.

“People make errors and they get disciplined for them all the time,” John Rambo, McClintock’s attorney, said as he asked Dulaney to reconsider her decision to fire his client and give him a more lenient punishment. “But not every mistake deserves termination.”

Rambo said city officials like Dulaney and Depew should share some of the blame because they let the tickets move forward even though they knew the citations were improperly reviewed.

 He also asked Depew why there was a three-week gap between McClintock’s actions and his termination and claimed that Depew had personal problems with McClintock and used the July 24 incident as an excuse to fire him.

Depew denied this allegation and added that he reported the situation to Chief David Nelson the morning after he caught Housewright using the computer to review the citations.

“The chief told me that he was handling it and that he would take care of it,” said Depew, who was made interim chief Aug. 3 after Nelson was suspended with pay pending the results of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigations probe into an unrelated matter involving the Police Department.

Depew said he decided that McClintock and Housewright should be fired after he was made interim chief and learned that no disciplinary action had been taken. He said he wishes the incident had never happened and insisted that something had to be done.

Dulaney said she would take the concerns raised under consideration as she reviews the firing. She said she will render a final decision in two weeks.

The interim city manager also said the city has been working to track down the improperly reviewed citations – some of which have already been mailed to their recipients – and if necessary will refund the money that each person paid.

gmclean@bristolnews.com

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